The present disclosure relates to journey time estimation and, more specifically, to estimating a journey time for a journey between a chosen origin and a chosen destination.
Travel by road using vehicles is an integral part of modern society and an integral factor in economic performance. For example, many commuters use road networks to travel to their place of work, logistics include delivery of goods to intended destinations by road, and so on. This puts a strain on the road networks, as traffic volumes can exceed the capacity of the road networks, leading to congestion and delays.
This is particularly prevalent is urban areas, where the capacity of the road network typically is constrained, either permanently by the size of the roads, or temporarily by roadwork, accidents and so on. Such congestion may not be permanently present, but may instead occur during certain periods of time in which high levels of traffic utilize the road network, e.g. weekday rush hours or business hours.
It is therefore desirable to be able to predict journey times over road networks such that congestion can be avoided. This is desirable for a number of reasons. For example, a hauling company wishing to minimize delays during the delivery of a number of items at one or more destinations in a certain region may wish to plan a round trip from its depot that minimizes the overall journey time of the round trip, e.g. to minimize costs of the round trip to protect profit margins, whereas (local) authorities may wish to minimize congestion on their road networks to avoid needless CO2 emissions in order to more effectively reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.